A biased look at psychology in the world

November 24, 2016

We've all dealt with narcissists at some time or another but we usually have the option of walking away if they get too annoying. Usually.

Still, the rise of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. has provided greater greater opportunities to stay in contact with people around the world. Unfortunately, narcissists have quickly discovered how useful social media can be in sharing words and images with countless people worldwide. And all with the click of a mouse.

To explain some of the latest research looking at how narcissists interact with social media, I should probably begin with some background. Narcissism is usually defined as "extreme selfishness, the pursuit of gratification from self or others, and an inflated admiration for one's own qualities." First introduced by Sigmund Freud in his 1914 essay on narcissism, it has since become a favourite topic for researchers and therapists. It has also been included in various editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (usually under the term narcissistic personality disorder) as well as being regarded as part of the Dark Triad of personality traits along with psychopathy and machiavellianism.

While there are different ways of classifying narcissists, two categories of narcissism which have become an important part of research are:

Grandiose narcissism - usually characterized by extreme confidence in their own superiority and are prone to going into a vindictive rage against anyone who dares to criticize them. They have no sense of shame and have often grown up with the knowledge that they are superior to everyone else. As adults, they may have multiple affairs and often pride themselves on how admired they are by the people around them. They can also be very aggressive in establishing dominance over other people.

Vulnerable narcissism - people high in vulnerable narcissism tend to be more emotionally sensitive (often to the point of being neurotic). They are distressed whenever they don't get the treatment they feel they deserve and often have problem with fear of rejection or being abandoned. In a real sense, vulnerable narcissists are over-compensating for poor self-esteem or a history of neglect that can go back to early childhood. They can often shift from feeling superior to feeling inferior depending on how their lives happen to be going at any particular time.

For reasons that are still unclear, narcissism seems to be on the increase in modern society. A recent book by Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell makes a compelling case that the United States, among other countries, is experiencing a narcissism epidemic. Along with reality television shows such as the Real Housewives franchise and My Super Sweet Sixteen, we are seeing a proliferation of media stars whose only claim to fame rests in the indulgent lifestyles that they lead.

Then there is the role that social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can play in allowing people to broadcast information about themselves to a worldwide audience, not to mention allowing them to . Though people can use social media for a wide variety of reasons, recent research does suggest that narcissists are spending more time online than ever though it still isn't clear exactly why. How they prefer to use social media seems to depend on what kind of needs are being fulfilled. For example, while everyone enjoys posting selfies, narcissists seem to prefer taking it to extremes, often to the point of posting highly inappropriate selfies to show off their physique or physical attractiveness. Narcissists also prefer posting under their own name t ensure that they get full credit for their posts (unless they need to attack people who have offended them, then anonymous posting on Twitter or 4chan comes in handy.)

November 22, 2016

Since its initial release in 1970, the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum has introduced in more than 6,000 schools across 145 counties. Produced by a company based in Texas, the ACE curriculum has come under fire for its emphasis on biblical literalism, Young Earth creationism, and opposition to sexual equality. Intended as an alternative to more secular schools, students enrolled in ACE schools work towards an International Christian Certificate of Education and many homeschooling families and private schools have adopted the curriculum. In the United Kingdom, though ACE schools are technically under the supervision of the U.K.'s Office of Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted), they are not held to the same standards as public schools

A new investigation has raised fresh concerns about the use of the ACE in United Kingdom schools and what they are teaching students. As part of the investigation, Vice reporter Martin Williams phoned one Christian school and posed as the father of a son who came out as gay. The unnamed teacher to whom he spoke reportedly stated that the school arranged "deliverances" for gay students to save them from the Devil. Similar to exorcisms, deliverances are intended to "cleanse" people of evil spirits. When questioned further on the phone about how the deliverances were carried out, she replied " We have to be sensitive because obviously we wouldn't want a deliverance going on in a room and then have Ofsted walk in. That would be a bit awkward to explain."

She explained: "Sometimes we'll have spiritual retreats for youth, for teens. These will be done over a period of three days on the weekend. We do it in a hotel in Bournemouth and all these things are going on there – deliverance and all these kinds of things." The teacher also expressed doubt about whether a gay student would be accepted or not. ""I wouldn't say we wouldn't take him," she said. "But I think our pastors would like to sit down and see where you are as a family," she said. "Always, when we have a sensitive case, it's always best to take it to pastors and they would make the final decision."

Previous investigations have already raised concern about what is being taught to students at ACE schools. Textbooks being used in ACE schools have been found to contain passages teaching that homosexuality is a choice, evolution is false and abortion is murder. One textbook passage reads: "The Bible teaches that homosexuality is sin. In Old Testament times, God commanded that homosexuals be put to death. Since God never commanded death for normal or acceptable actions, it is as unreasonable to say that homosexuality is normal as it is to say that murder or stealing is normal."

Despite attempts by Vice at contacting officials at Ofsted for comments on the story, no responses have been received to date. Previous Ofsted reports on ACE schools describe the curriculum as positive for student welfare despite concerns about what is being taught to children. Opposition MPs have already gone on record as opposing the use of the ACE curriculum in publicly supported schools.

November 20, 2016

When Richard Lynch Garner (more popularly known as R.L. Garner) announced his plan to travel to Africa to do scientific research, he quickly became the butt of numerous jokes and ridicule by scientists. Not only did Garner lack any real scientific credentials, but the actual purpose of his research seemed downright bizarre. Believing that many species of primates were intelligent in their own right, he announced his intention to learn the language spoken by monkeys. That he managed to get a popular magazine to subsidize his expedition seems incredible enough, but his amazing career would make him a minor celebrity status later in life (including a strange attempt to establish a new monarchy in Gabon).

Born and raised in Abingdon, Tennessee as part of a large, middle class family long before the outbreak of the Civil War, Garner showed little sign of the strange destiny that lay ahead of him. Enlisting as a Confederate soldier at the age of fourteen, his military service record included several stints in prisoner-of-war camps. After the end of the war, he managed to attend an academy for two years before eventually returning finding work as a schoolteacher.

Despite his modest life, including a wife and son, R.L. Garner managed to keep up to date with many of the hot scientific debates going on at the time. With the publication of Darwin's groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species in 1859, evolutionary theories were all the rage. Newspapers and magazines carried stories speculating aout primitive ape-men who might still be living in remote parts of the world. Around this time, sideshow exhibits including Krao the Monkey Girl and Jo Jo the Dog-Faced Boy seemed to blur the line between humans and animals even further.

As for Garner, he soon found himself inspired after seeing monkeys cavorting in their cages during a visit to a Cincinnati zoo in 1884. Reading books by Darwin, Max Muller, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Thomas Huxley, he formulated the theory that monkeys, along with many other "dumb animals" could have a language of their own. Though frequently ridiculed whenever he tried to float this idea at the various scientific conferences he managed to attend, Garner became more convinced than ever that he was right.

With the timely development of Thomas Edison's wax cylinder phonograph, Garner realized that this new technology could be invaluable in proving his claims. While pursuing his research, he managed to keep himself and his family fed by establishing himself as a freelance writer. Not incidentally, he also used the power of the press to generate support for his ideas as well as to establish his "brand" as an intrepid researcher and explorer. Which may have been what attracted the interest of Samuel McClure of McClure's Magazine.

Though forgotten today, McClure's Magazine was a monthly periodical that became extremely popular for its muckraking style of journalism and original literary content. It's hard to say exactly why Samuel McClure decided to sponsor Garner but the new publicity over his theories quickly made him an overnight sensation. And not just for readers of McClure's Magazine. McClure launched a marketing campaign that aggressively sold Garner's story to dozens of newspapers. Suddenly, those bizarre theories didn't seem so bizarre.

With the publication of his first book, The Speech of Monkeys, in 1892, Garner's claims were suddenly being taken seriously (at least by non-scientists). The book contained transcripts of his sessions with monkeys in zoos across the United States and set the stage for what he saw as the next step in his research: traveling to Africa to study the language of monkeys in the wild. That same year, with the full financial backing of Samuel McClure, "Professor" Garner, as he was often called in the press, set sail for Gabon on Africa's west coast.

To aid his research, he brought along all of his equipment, including his phonograph, as well as a steel cage. Very much a man of his time, Garner's racist views about white superiority constantly came through in his writing about his experiences in Gabon. All of which seemed ironic considering how dependent he was on the locals for virtually all of his needs. But the locals hoped he could help them as well. At the time, Gabonese natives were suffering under French colonial rule and they were hoping that Garner could help them gain more freedom. Though living conditions were not as horrific as in the neighbouring Congo under Belgian rule, Garner frequently found himself negotiating with natives and French administrators alike.

He also laid down the groundwork of what would be a long career with extensive time spent in the wild. Through his writings, which were chronicled in McClure's Magazine and syndicated to newspapers across the U.S., Garner shared his experiences dealing with tsetse flies, wild animals, and fierce native tribes. Unfortunately, even with the help of Gabonese natives who took him deep into remote regions of the country, what he couldn't provide was any proof that he could learn the language of monkeys.

Finally, after his financial assets dried up, he was forced to declare his first expedition to Gabon a failure. Returning the the U.S., he became an object of ridicule with most newspapers abandoning him completely (including Samuel McClure). Though Garner insisted that he could find the proof he needed with another expedition, finding the funding he needed was much more difficult this time around. After considerable scrounging, he managed to find new backers and returned to Gabon for another year.

While in Gabon however, the English journal Truth published a series of damning articles denouncing Garner as a fake. According to the articles, Garner's claims of traveling into Gabon's jungles had been a lie and he had actually spent all his time at a Catholic mission. He was even said to have left behind his steel cage and a sizable bill when he first expedition ended. Completely unaware of what had been said about him, Garner returned to the United States to discover that he had become a laughingstock. While he publicly threatened to punch the Truth's editor, the damage had been done. Even as he prepared to return to Gabon, the stigma of fakery made finding funding harder than ever.

November 18, 2016

The arrest of the dashing Captain Leslie Barker on February 28, 1929 seemed routine enough. After the war veteran failed to appear at a bankruptcy hearing in the previous December, a warrant for his arrest was issued for contempt of court. Despite his reputation as a sportsman, boxer, and womanizer, Captain Barker surrendered to police without incident.The big surprise came later when he was remanded to Brixton Prison to await his trial date. It's easy to imagine the prison doctor's astonishment when he gave Barker a routine medical examination and made a rather unexpected discovery: Captain Leslie Ivor Victor Gauntlett Slight Barker was a woman.

Despite early attempts at hiding the news of Barker's true gender, the information quickly leaked to the press. Although Barker's friends were astonished enough, the revelation was even more of a shock to his wife Elfrida. In a news interview which she gave shortly after her husband's arrest, she stated that she was "dazed, stunned! In our six years of married life I never once suspected that dear Victor was a woman too!" As she would later state, their lack of normal sexual relations had been explained away as being due to her "husband's" war wounds. Her family, who had been charmed by the gallant officer's courting of their daughter, also expressed their amazement at the revelation.

As police began interviewing Captain Barker (who had been hastily transferred to a women's prison), the full story gradually emerged. Born Lilias Irma Valerie Barker in 1895, available information on her early life suggests that her upbringing was fairly unremarkable. Her father was a wealthy proprietor on the Isle of Jersey and Lilias had been raised as a proper young woman of her generation. After serving in World War I as a Red Cross Nurse, ambulance driver, and horse trainer, she married Lieutenant Harold Arkell-Smith in 1918. This marriage ended in divorce after just a few months and she went on to have two children from another relationship that ended as well. It's hard to say when her fascination with cross-dressing began but, by 1923, she was already well established as "Colonel" Leslie Barker when she courted and married Elfrida Emma Howard.

Along with her two children, Leslie and Elfrida settled down to a somewhat unsettled family life while Barker drifted from job to job. Under the stage name of "Ivor Gauntlett", she pursued a career as an actor before drifting to jobs as a boxing club manager, furniture dealer, dog kennel manager, dairy worker, and farmhand. By 1928, Elfrida decided she had enough and returned home to her father in 1929 although she and Leslie remained married until his arrest.

Leslie Barker became involved in the British Organization of Fascists and quickly distinguished herself during the 1926 British General Strike by participating in various "Raids on Reds" (breaking up Communist mass meetings in London's Hyde Park). She also ran a boxing program for the Fascists and eventually found a job as a desk clerk in the Regent Palace Hotel (she had since demoted herself from being a Colonel to being a retired Captain). Unfortunately, financial problems led to the bankruptcy charge and her eventually exposure as a woman.

For obvious reasons, details of trial at the Old Bailey was eagerly followed by the people of London (many of whom had never heard the word "transvestite" before). Shortly after being outed as a woman, she sold her story to London's Daily Mail. Titled "My Own Story", it gave "Captain Leslie Barker" as the byline and presented some of the backstory to her strange life. Excepts from this story include: "I was reared as a boy and always thought a boy had a jolly good time" and "The first tragedy of my life was when the man I loved and should have married was made a prisoner early in the War. Now I am fond of nobody and have no feelings—I only adore my son."

The prosecutors were left floundering as to the exact nature of the charges that were laid against Lilias/Leslie in addition to the original bankruptcy charge. Although same-sex marriage was illegal in the U.K. (and still is), prosecutors declined to charge her under the U.K.'s Sexual Offenses Act. Instead, they decided to charge her with perjury due to her posing as "Colonel Leslie Barker" when she married Elfrida. As Barker had also posed as an officer when she was charged with possessing a forged firearms certificate two years previously, a second perjury charge was added as well. She was eventually sentenced to nine months in Holloway Prison.

The time spent in a women's prison did nothing to change Lilias' cross-dressing habits and she quickly went back to being Victor Barker after her release. After drifting between different short-term jobs, she eventually became a sideshow attraction under the name of Colonel Barker by 1937. Using the name of Jeffrey Norton, she entered into a common-law relationship with a woman that apparently lasted for the rest of Lilias' life. During WWII, she worked at a switchboard operator in a London hospital while also serving in the Home Guard. After the war, she and her wife Eva moved to Suffolk where they lived until Ilias/Victor Barker died of Parkinson's Disease in 1960. Her death certificate gave her name as Geoffrey Norton and she is buried on the grounds of St. Edmund's church.

November 17, 2016

Cortisol release in a stressful situation can be beneficial for memory encoding and memory consolidation. Stimuli, such as odors, related to the stressful episode may successfully cue memory contents of the stress experience. A new study published in the journal Behavioral Neuroscence aimed at testing the potency of stress to influence startle responsivity 24 hr later and to implicitly reactivate emotional memory traces triggered by an odor involved. Participants were assigned to either a stress (Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]) or control (friendly TSST [f-TSST]) condition featuring an ambient odor. On the next day, participants underwent an auditory startle paradigm while their eyeblink reflex was recorded by an electrooculogram. Three different olfactory stimuli were delivered, one being the target odor presented the day before. Additionally, negative, positive, and pictures of the committee members were included for comparing general startle responsivity and fear-potentiated startle. Participants of the stress group demonstrated an enhanced startle response across all stimuli compared to participants of the control group. There were no specific effects with regard to the target odor. The typical fear-potentiated startle response occurred. Stressed participants tended to rate the target odor more aversive than control participants. Odor recognition memory did not differ between the groups, suggesting an implicit effect on odor valence. Our results show that acute stress exposure enhances startle responsivity 24 hr later. This effect might be caused by a shift of amygdala function causing heightened sensitivity, but lower levels of specificity

November 16, 2016

Despite the controversy surrounding first-time sex, most young people in the United States become sexually active long before they reach adulthood. According to a 2012 research study, look at participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, sexual debut (first sexual experience) is classified as "early" if it occurs before the age of 15, "normative" if it occurs between 15 and 19 years of age, and "late" if it occurs after the age of 19.

But does the age at which this sexual debut occurs make a difference in terms of later problems? Considering how important the first sexual experience can be in establishing normal sexual relations and romantic pairings, it's essential that potential risks such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease be recognized. Research has consistently shown that adolescents having a sexual debut before the age of 15 are less likely to use contraception than those in the normative or late debut groups. They are also more likely to have a history of substance abuse and, especially for females, are more likely to suffer from depression.

November 15, 2016

There's nothing particularly remarkable about its appearance, just a simple white powder that can be sold in bags, capsule, or pill form. And it's also perfectly legal in most jurisdictions despite growing reports of fatalities linked to its use.

When an Upjohn research team first developed the opioid analgesic they named U-47700, it was originally intended to be used in treating severe pain. Seven times more potent than morphine and chemically similar to fentanyl, the new drug was eventually discontinued due to concerns about its potential for abuse. Though never tested on humans in the United States, Chinese researchers have identified a wide range of side effects such as rectal bleeding and severe nerve damage.

Despite the health dangers associated with U-47700, or "Pink" as it's known on the street, the euphoria and sedative effects reported by users has been enough to fuel a growing demand for the new drug in many countries around the world. While Upjohn still owns the patents on U-47700, the published studies have provided enough information for underground laboratories to replicate the formula and make it available for recreational use.

Since the first incident in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2005, there have been numerous reports of fatalities across the United States (some estimates suggest there have well over one hundred deaths). Emergency departments treating patients for U-47700 overdoses are often stymied considering how little information is available regarding the drug and how to treat cases as they arise. Much like W-18, another powerful opiate that also occupies a legal grey area, overseas labs are taking advantage of loopholes in drug laws to stay ahead of law enforcement and feed the high demand for newer and stronger opioids.

To help prevent further deaths, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency arranged for the temporary placement of U-4770 on Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act in September. Even before the DEA's action, Ohio, Florida, Wyoming Illinois, and Georgia enacted their own emergency bans and many other states are expected to follow suit. Unfortunately, even as drug laws and enforcement agencies play catch-up, new psychoactive products are expected to take their place.

According to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, new psychoactive substances are coming along at an average rate of one per week. Not only are underground labs coming up with new drugs on their own, they are also taking advantage of the findings of legitimate drug laboratories seeking to develop new pain remedies, many of which are ultimately abandoned because they are seen as too dangerous for humans.

Many of these labs are from China and sell their products openly using online drug marketing sites. With online forums providing users with an opportunity to share their own experiences with the new drugs, the drug labs can create a market for their product and make it available for willing users.

Though the DEA and the U.S. Congress continues to add new drugs to Schedule 1, the process is largely reactive as drug producers manage to stay ahead of the law. In the meantime, the death toll linked to U-47700 continues to rise.

November 13, 2016

When Dr. Leo Stanley expressed an opinion about criminal behaviour, people listened. Even as he carried out some of the most outrageous medical experiments in California penal history.

As Chief Surgeon at California's San Quentin State Prison from 1913 to 1951, Dr. Stanley could always be counted by reporters and editors to share his own unique insights into the causes of crime, even long after his retirement. Tall and thin with an aristocratic bearing, he even looked the part of a man who dedicated his life to treating society's misfits. But for all his dedication to improving the medical facilities at the prison and serving as a pioneer in prison medicine, he was very much a man of his time when it came to being a devout believer in the "disease" model of crime, not to mention the role that "inferior genes" played in criminal behaviour.

Though this kind of thinking would go out of style quickly enough after World War II due to the horrifying excesses of the Nazi regime, Stanley remained a stern eugenicist for much of his career. As a result, he openly advocated the sterilization of countless prisoners to prevent them from passing on their presumed genetic defects to their children. Being Chief Surgeon, he was not only well-placed to recommend that prisoners be sterilized, he also personally carried out the operations for hundreds of prisoners over the years. While involuntary sterilization was legal at the time in California, Dr. Stanley's gruff manner and the trust he instilled in the inmates he cared for was enough to convince most inmates to be sterilized "for their own good".

Not that Stanley blamed all criminal behaviour on inferior genes. In an influential 1923 article, he argued that criminals suffered from one of three kinds of disease: moral, mental, and physical. Even having poor eyesight could motivate some people to turn to crime due to their being unable to compete for jobs. This motivated him to set up a cosmetic surgery program for inmates with deformities such as bad facial scars to improve their chances of re-entering society. All in all, the "old croaker" as he was affectionately known by inmates, had a reputation for being hard-nosed but compassionate in treating his patients.

Perhaps more importantly, when he wasn't talking to the press or tending to the medical needs of his prisoners, Leo Stanley also carried out his own research which, while largely ignored by the media during his lifetime, has earned him an even more bizarre form of immortality after his death. Beginning in 1918, five years after first starting at San Quentin, he became inspired by the work of researchers such as Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard and Serge Voronoff. Both Brown-Sequard and Voronoff had gained fame by claims that implanting sex glands from young men into older men could effectively rejuvenate them. While their medical colleagues tended to be skeptical, newspapers were more enthusiastic in suggesting that the key to eternal youth lay just around the corner (at least for men).

While some of the more bizarre claims being made still lay in the future, including the infamous John R. Brinkley and his "goat gland therapy", Leo Stanley likely regarded himself as being in an excellent position to grab some of the Voronoff glory for himself. Not only did he have hundreds of prisoners for his research subjects, but he also had access to the testicles of executed prisoners (did I mention that he was also the prison coroner?) Though the families of some of the executed prisoners objected to organs being removed without permission, they were largely ignored.

Not that Stanley limited himself to human sexual organs. His initial work implanting the testicles of executed prisoners into older prisoners hadn't worked out as he hoped since there weren't enough executed criminals to go around. As an alternative, he switched to using goat glands instead. In one radical experiment which was reported in a 1922 Los Angeles Times article, he implanted goat glands into 1,000 inmates (and a few overeager staff members). This basically involved slicing the glands thinly, putting them into a syringe, and directly injecting the tissue into the patient's abdomen. Some elderly inmates also got the "full treatment" with testicles from executed prisoners implanted into them. Stanley brushed aside any concerns about tissue rejection and insisted that the transplanted tissue was “absorbed into the patient’s system without the slightest harm.”

And it seemed to work, at least from the perspective of the reporter covering the story. One 72-year-old prisoner receiving goat glands became “as lively as a young colt" (or a kid, presumably). How much of this was due to the placebo effect seems impossible to determine. Still, Stanley seemed satisfied enough with the results to continue his experiments. A 1940 United Press newspaper story was even more enthusiastic in describing Leo Stanley's gland research. "Unknown to the outside world except for limited medical circles," the story begins, "San Quentin Prison for the past twenty two years has been the world's greatest clinic for rejuvenation experiments." Over the course of those twenty-two years, Dr. Stanley carried out over 10,000 operations (all with the consent of the patient, the reporter was quick to point out). According to Leo Stanley, the main source for the story, his operations were effective in treating acne, diabetes, asthma and "general systemic weakness."

Stanley added that working on prisoners had many benefits for medical research since the patients could be observed for years afterward to see if any adverse problems developed. The article insisted that the good doctor was in the process of preparing a final report that would sum up his findings. Presumably he did though I couldn't find any record of it ever being written.

With the outbreak of World War II and the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was soon at war. To do his part for the war effort, Leo Stanley took a sabbatical from San Quentin and joined the navy as a surgeon. Following the end of the war and his return to San Quentin however, he quickly found that eugenics and biological explanations for crime were no longer in favour. Not only were sterilizations largely discontinued but his gland experiments were stopped completely due to pressure from prison officials. The legal downfall of John R. Brinkley (the other goat gland doctor) had likely generated enough adverse publicity to make the California Department of Corrections somewhat leery about one of their own doctors conducting potentially dangerous experiments on inmates.

His dream of human rejuvenation being dashed, Stanley eventually retired from San Quentin in 1951 though his post-retirement life seemed idyllic enough. He and his wife lived on their large estate in Marin County (despite his eugenic beliefs, they never had children). When not working as a gentleman farmer and horse breeder, he served the occasional stint on cruise ships and even had a brief political career, largely on the local Water Board. He also dedicated himself to freelance writing, including a book based on his prison experiences, Men at their Worst. Leo Stanley eventually died in 1976 at the age of 90 and his obituary made no mention of his strange experiments.

Though Leo Stanley can be considered a pioneer in the use of hormone therapy to treat disease, his use of prisoners in potentially dangerous experiments seems incredible today. Or, perhaps not. Though hedied without ever seeing the massive rise in prison populations of the past twenty years, Stanley might have appreciated the opportunities this kind of overcrowding might bring. Some researchers are already advocating the loosening of restrictions on medical experiments using inmates while legislators in South Carolina have openly debated an incentive program to offer shorter sentences for inmates in exchange for organ donation.

As prison populations rise and governments continue to be more concerned with punishment rather than rehabilitation, who knows what the future will bring?

November 11, 2016

On September 8, 1992, Scott Louis Panetti shaved his head, dressed in military fatigues, and drove to his in-laws' Fredericksburg, Texas home where his wife and daughter were staying. After breaking into the home, he shot his wife's parents at close range. Amanda and Joe Alvarado died at the scene. He then took his wife and daughter hostage and forced them to come to his bunkhouse. When police later surrounded the building, Panetti released both hostages unharmed. He then changed into a suit and surrendered. He would later say that his in-laws had forced one of his several personalities, "Sarge", to come out and kill them. He also added that, due to divine intervention, his victims didn't suffer.

Scott Panetti's psychosis apparently began when he was a teenager in his native state of Texas. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he was first hospitalized in 1981 and his bizarre behaviour and delusions would lead to multiple hospitalizations over the next eleven years. In one psychotic episode in 1986, Panetti became convinced that the devil was taunting him and he attempted to slash the walls of his family home to exorcise the demonic influence. He also buried his family's furniture believing that the "devil was in it" and nailed the house curtains shut for fear that the neighbours would film him. In 1986 alone, he was hospitalized nine times for periods ranging from four to forty-four days.

Panetti's case was complicated by his refusal to take psychiatric medication and frequent threats made against family members (especially his wife and her parents). Between 1981 and 1992, he would be hospitalized eleven times (always involuntarily) with his last release being in August of 1992. Due to his drinking and abusive behaviour, Scott Panetti's wife left him and took her daughter to live with her parents, . She also obtained a restraining order against her husband, not that this would prevent the murder of her parents.

As you might expect, the murders and the psychiatric issues involved triggered a media frenzy. Two competency hearings were held in the Panetti case. The first hearing, held in July 1994, ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Prior to the second hearing, held in September of that same year, his lawyer reported that Panetti had been unable to instruct him in any useful way due to his delusional thinking. Despite a psychiatric report presented by the prosecution confirming the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, Scott Panetti was found fit to stand trial.

And it was quite a trial...

While in the Bell County Jail waiting for his capital hearing to begin, Panetti discontinued all psychiatric medication. He stated that he no longer needed any medication since he was a "Gnostic Nazarene who had been spiritually healed". He also accused his attorneys of conspiring against him with the police and the prosecutor. When his September 1995 trial began, he waived all right to counsel and insisted on representing himself. Despite objections from his family, defense counsel, and even the prosecuting attorney, his request was granted.

By all accounts, Scott Panetti's defense was bizarre (to say the least). He dressed in cowboy style during the course of the trial, complete with cowboy hat, bandanna, and cowboy style shirts. The presentations that he gave in his defense were rambling and frequently incoherent. He attempted to subpoena hundreds of witnesses, including Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy, Anne Bancroft, and a host of others. Various observers to the trial reported being baffled by the judge's willingness to let Panetti ramble on. One attorney who had been called as a witness by Panetti later commented that "The courtroom had the atmosphere of a circus. The judge just seemed to let Scott run free with his irrational questions and courtroom antics".

Largely due to his long and incoherent rambles, the jury sentenced Scott Panetti to death on September 22, 1995. Members of the jury had been intimidated by Panetti's strange presentation and were frightened by the prospect of his eventual release. Since being placed on death row, Scott Panetti has consistently refused to take psychiatric medication and his attorneys have been fighting his execution on the grounds of his mental illness. Under the 1986 Ford versus Wainwright Supreme Court ruling, persons deemed unable to understand the reality or reason for their punishment can not be executed. Despite psychiatric evidence establishing Panetti's mental illness, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the execution order on the grounds that he was sufficiently competent to recognize the purpose of his punishment.

In the spring of 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Scott Panetti's favour in a 5-4 decision. The Supreme Court decision sent the case back to the Federal District Court for resolution. An evidentiary hearing was conducted before Judge Sam Sparks on February 6 2008 to evaluate the defendant's mental capacity. On March 26, Federal Judge Sparks ruled that Scott Panetti was competent to be executed. In his ruling, the judge concluded that "Panetti was mentally ill when he committed his crime and continues to be mentally ill today. However, he has both a factual and rational understanding of his crime, his impending death, and the causal retributive connection between the two. Therefore, if any mentally ill person is competent to be executed for his crimes, this record establishes it is Scott Panetti."

Despite numerous appeals and petitions (including one filed by his ex-wife and the daughter of the victims), Scott Panetti remains on death row. No formal execution date has been set.

November 10, 2016

Safety plans have been suggested as an intervention for people at risk of suicide. Given the impulsive character of suicidal ideation, a safety plan in the format of a mobile phone application is likely to be more available and useful than traditional paper versions. The study recently published in the journal Crisis describes MYPLAN, a mobile phone application designed to support people at risk of suicide by letting them create a safety plan. MYPLAN was developed in collaboration with clinical psychiatric staff at Danish suicide preventive clinics. The mobile application lets the user create an individualized safety plan by filling in templates with strategies, actions, and direct links to contact persons. MYPLAN was developed in 2013 and is freely available in Denmark and Norway. It is designed for iPhone and Android platforms. As of December 2015, the application has been downloaded almost 8,000 times. Users at risk of suicide as well as clinical staff have provided positive feedback on the mobile application. Support via mobile phone applications might be particularly useful for younger age groups at risk of suicide as well as in areas or countries where support options are lacking. Yet, it is important to examine the effectiveness of this type of intervention.